She visited the West Indies when she was twelve, overseeing her younger brother Tommy, the child actor in a touring production.

[2][3] In 1881, in New York City, she performed in Esmerelda, a play written by Frances Hodgson Burnett and William Gillette.

In 1883, she joined the New York Fifth Avenue Theatre company, with her mother, Jane, and little brother, Tommy.

[8] She performed in one of the tour companies of the play Hazel Kirke, in the title role,[9] before leaving to marry her first husband in 1884.

[13] She later returned to New York with the same company to perform at Madison Square Theatre as Ada[14] in Sealed Intentions.

Also in 1887, she played the role of Sylvia in an adaptation of L'Monde ou l'on ennuie originally by Édouard Pailleron.

[22] After a brief illness, Russell returned to the Madison Square Theatre company on a tour to San Francisco in 1888 in Partners.

[32] After an extended stay in Europe, Russell returned to the stage in Bret Harte's play Sue.

[34] In the interim, she appeared in The Mysterious Mr. Bugle as Betty Fondacre,[35][36] A Bachelor's Romance,[37] Salt of the Earth,[38] and Dangerfield '95.

She fell ill partway through 1899[40] and in June of that year returned to the United States to rest.

[41] She did, however, appear in a few plays, in 1899, Miss Hobbs with Ann Gilbert[42] and in 1900 in A Royal Family.

[46] In 1903, Annie Russell performed in Boston, playing the title role in The Younger Mrs.

[50] In the same year, she performed in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the newly built Astor Theatre in Boston.

Wagenhals & Kemper, owners of a company that Russell was a part of, bought land to build a $300,000 theatre bearing her name in New York City.

[57] She married playwright and stage manager Eugene Wiley Presbrey (1853–1931) on 6 November 1884, and divorced him in 1897.

Russell suffered from periodic illnesses throughout her life, contributing to large gaps in her career.